Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
Great news! Via the signing of California Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) by Governor Jerry Brown on Sept. 10th California is now charged with getting 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045. California is an energy leader and this particular move in the Golden State substantiates that. But, the move goes beyond … Read more
So, let’s begin this journey with something as basic as one-way streets. With one-way streets, the entire roadway width, besides eliminating opposite-direction travel on part of the street, same-direction (or current-of-traffic) vehicle movement enables same-direction parking on both sides of the street. Such a provision can make locating a parking space somewhat less encumbered and … Read more
Separating – and situated between – Los Angeles and Bakersfield are the Tehachapi Mountains. Proposed for the region between was an 8,000-acre development known as Grapevine. The development, to have been sited completely within Kern County borders but very near to the Kern County-Los Angeles County Line, would have enabled what is referred to as … Read more
Rail rapid transit: What is it? Definition: Rail rapid transit can be thought of as any of the rail-based systems designed to convey, move, transport high numbers of passengers from points A to B pretty much insulated (isolated, separated) from other transportation modes using their own (dedicated) rights-of-way incorporating a guideway of one kind or … Read more
I have heard at least once if not more times that July 2018 is California’s hottest month ever recorded. 124 years ago, it should be noted, is when such temperature-data recordkeeping first began. On Saturday, a friend in Bakersfield texted that the Air Quality Index there had reached an unhealthy (for everyone) 151. Ozone was … Read more
On 43 miles of track linking Marin and Sonoma counties, California’s newest passenger rail commuter system is about to celebrate its first full year of operation on Aug. 25th. Marking the occasion there was an event at the Novato Hamilton Station on Aug. 18th while train rides were free all weekend, according to SMART in … Read more
You have to wonder why after two million years’ time, humans are still being exposed to and breathing bad air. It’s mind-boggling, if not more than a little disconcerting, to say the least. Through document searches I look for hope, encouraging words. Take, for instance, the following from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control … Read more
I have heard that the windiest spot in California, maybe up and down America’s entire west coast, is at Point Reyes, located north of the City by the Bay – San Francisco. Been there, seen that. Altamont Pass is another windswept Golden State fixture, and, yet another, the Palm Desert region of the south state. … Read more
It is not as if we did not already know humans are great at devising tools. We did. More of the very same as it applies to tools to determine and measure changes taking place in our atmosphere. Of this, we can be sure. Forget great, at that, we’re excellent. What we are not as … Read more
Stepping outside the other evening I bore witness to an anomaly. Never before in my life had I seen anything like it: A red-colored ball on the western horizon. It was a celestial scene, the kind seen both in silver screen productions and television programs and presentations from the likes of your Gene Roddenbury’s and … Read more